1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to games normally played in an arcade environment, and more particularly to such games played by directing a playing piece into one or more targets, and to color sensing apparatus used in games.
2. Background of the Related Art
Games of many types are played in arcade environments. One type of game utilizes a target and a playing piece that moves relative to the target. A game score is accumulated based upon characteristics of the playing pieces (e.g. shade, color, etc.) and whether they reach the target.
An example of one such arcade game is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,775, of Klamer et al., who describes a game in which a photosensor and an LED are mounted on the rim of a basketball hoop to sense whether a darkly-colored ball or a lightly-colored ball has passed through the hoop; score is separately kept for each of the two different shades of ball. Another example is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,141, of Foley et al., who describe a game in which a number of marbles are rolled down a series of inclined planes that have randomizing obstructions. The order in which the marbles reach the bottom is detected by a color-sensitive detector which senses the colors of the marbles. Yet another example is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,700,546, of H. Glassen, Jr., who describes a game in which a coin is tossed onto a contact ring on a playing field in synchronization with the blinking of colored lights on a separate display panel.
Various types of sensors are used to determine the shade or color of playing pieces for games. Also, shade and color sensors are known in the prior art for a variety of other purposes. For example, U.S Pat. No. 4,917,500, of A. Lugos, describes a color sensor system for the recognition of objects with colored surfaces using an active device where at least three electronic light transmitters are used to successively illuminate a colored surface of an object to determine its color. U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,645, by Satula er al., describes a photo-electric color sensor for article sorting utilizing a number of light sources of different wavelengths in conjunction with a photosensitive element to determine the color of a target object.
Games of the prior art, while enjoyable, tend to be simplistic and, as such, can lead to rapid player boredom. This is undesirable in an arcade environment where revenues are directly related to the continuous, repeated use of the games. It is contemplated that an arcade game which makes sophisticated use of color sensing to control and/or enhance the game experience would remain more interesting to players and generate greater revenues for the arcade owner.